Dominate the Descendants

Dominate 9

This power is the ultimate tool of control in the arsenal of the Methuselahs, a powerful weapon in the War of Princes. With Dominate the Descendants, the wielder may issue commands to anyone who is descended from him — his childer, his childer’s childer and so forth down to even the weak-blooded 13th generation. Distance and familiarity matter not. A vampire in England can easily affect a descendant of his in Outremer who has no knowledge of his own line. Dominate the Descendants is rarely powerful enough to cause direct actions in the targets, instead slowly changing their priorities to coincide with the wishes of the user. This change is so slow and gradual, sometimes happening over a period of years, that outside influence is rarely suspected.

System: Dominate the Descendants requires that a permanent point of Willpower be spent, thus it is not used lightly. The player rolls Manipulation + Leadership, with a difficulty equal to 4 + the number of generations who are to heed the command, starting with the vampires one step removed from the character. If the difficulty is pushed beyond 9, it requires more successes to work. Commands must be very general in terms, such as “work toward the glory of the Baronies of Avalon” or “guard the knowledge of the heretics against those who seek to destroy it.” Dominate the Descendants lasts for one decade per success on the roll, and a vampire in torpor can use the power. Dominate the Descendants is powerful enough to affect even the ghouls of those who are affected by the power, though to a lesser degree (ghouls may roll Willpower, difficulty 6, if they do not wish to act on the impulses that Dominate the Descendants induces).

Example: Tubalcain is a fourth-generation Lasombra who lies in torpor under his former haven in Ostia Antica. He decides to strike against his rival, Mithras, by commanding his descendants to sabotage the trade between England and the rest of Europe. Tubalcain’s player (no, this does not mean we advocate that you play fourth generation characters) spends a permanent point of Willpower and then rolls Manipulation + Leadership. If Tubalcain wishes to affect only those of his childer who are of the fifth, sixth and seventh generations, the difficulty is 7 (base 4 + 3 generations’ worth of vampires). Should he decide to affect all his childer down to the 12th generation, the difficulty is then 9 and three successes are required. Should the roll succeed, Lasombra all over the world begin working against the trade with England.